Chapter 3-13 Ending: Peaceful ways by force!

Micaiah status: Doomed.

I don't even know if you got the chance to transition into a non-combat state.

...Not saying it. (It looks like this particular line is not affected by Pelleas's mortal status.)

だけど…それでも、
ペレアス王１人を犠牲にしたり、
誓約なんかでじわじわと
命を奪われるよりいい。
戦って戦って……
息絶えるその瞬間まで
生を実感できるから。
…付き合わされる皇帝軍には
迷惑なことでしょうけど……

Micaiah gets a bit of a soliloquy about how it's better for Daein to die fighting than the slow, lingering agony of a nation falling slowly but surely to the blood pact. This dialogue is slightly edited based on whether or not Pelleas is dead (there's a bit where she mentions him that's the culprit), and if Pelleas is dead, there's a CG that appears here and nowhere in the English version: Micaiah's Blood Pact mark. The mark moved to its next of kin with the previous king dead and the curse not lifted.

When all myths are true, you realise you can find plot nuggets by plundering the children's section of the library.

Of course, with how children's literature is now, you can probably have a good shot of that even without myths. There's a lot of good stories in there.

Of course, we don't need a myth. We have someone who knows about Blood Pacts.

That just slipped right on by, didn't it?

Time to see what Almedha happens to know about what's going down right about now.

Well, we are very doomed.

Sounds good.

Sothe:

元をただせば……
あいつらが元老院を
野放しにしていたのが悪い。
その報いだと思って
相手してもらえばいいさ。

Micaiah:

サザったら……
ユンヌ…
お前はお逃げなさい
いままで……ありがとう。

Sothe:

なんだ…ずいぶん
あっさりしたもんだな。
普段は追い払っても、
すぐにミカヤのところに戻ってきて
離れなかったのに。

Micaiah:

賢い子だから…
わかってくれたのよ。

Sothe:

それにしても、薄情じゃないか？

Micaiah:

わたしにはサザがいてくれる。
それだけでいいわ……

Sothe:

……あぁ。
それだけでいい。

Micaiah:

じゃあ…行きましょう。

The realisation that Almedha has the clue is not in the JP script at all- instead, Micaiah and Sothe have a huddle as they prepare to die. I... vastly prefer our version.

Why didn't we do this against Mugill? Moat or something?

Bigger than Micaiah's?

Ranulf, meanwhile, doesn't ever get Chaotic. Although this is all sorts of bad news all at once. For Micaiah, that is.

Ike:

おまえ、顔色が……

Ranulf:

あぁ、我ながら…
ぶっ倒れないのが不思議なぐらい
気分が悪い。
けど、これはオレが特異なだけで……
他のほとんどのやつは、
暴走のほうへ進んでってる。

Ranulf is getting a little sick from the Chaos. He's a bit like Mist in that regard. I'm really interested in what his Order deal is, but we didn't even get much about why Mist is the way she is.

Somehow, I get the feeling Skrimir is more likely instigating than curtailing. Although it's a good idea to check where he is regardless of which one he's doing.

The birds are looking forward to finishing this thing pretty calmly. Then again, they're not the ones about to reach Micaiah and murder her.

"I am detecting a gigantic aerial life form. It's eighty metres long, and it's headed this way. Oh good glavin it's right on top of us!"

HIT THE DIRT!

Black dragon! By all accounts, Ashnard should have been riding something at least this big. He certainly feels big, but not exactly this scale.

He definitely didn't have this laser.

And there goes one of the castle walls.

Well, that's one way to make your point.

Good question.

Ranulf, not actually relevant to Ike's question, although I'll forgive you for the relevance to the situation.

Ike's still going to ask his question until someone answers him.

"OK, fine, we'll worry about the dragon. I still say asking why Elincia's here is important."

Micaiah didn't quite notice the dragon turning part of her castle into rubble. Well observed.

Oh hey, it's Kurth! Kurth? We, the player, know quite a bit about who Kurth is and what he's doing here, but for Micaiah, that's a little more obscure.

This question says it all, really. Although Micaiah doesn't realise that Kurthnaga is responsible for some of the nastiness.

This, though, this is also a reveal to the audience as it is Micaiah. Although we're still one step ahead of Micaiah- Kurthnaga's sister is a laguz, which has some... implications.

The identity of Kurthnaga's sister comes later for now, though.

I think that's to be expected right now.

...Uh, guys, it's Nailah? Has it really been so long you've forgotten what Nailah looks like?

Micaiah's order is not followed.

Not that Nailah cares. But still. Shakes fist at Daein generics.

Some more friendly faces around here helps Micaiah out. With Pelleas dead, those are at a bit of a premium right now.

And another appearance of this hugging animation.

So let's go see what Ena and Elincia are doing with a dragon.

Ike has never seen a black dragon before- except, well, he's seen Rajaion before. Technicalities. I don't think Ike has seen transformed Caineghis yet, either. Skrimir, yes.

Tibarn knew it was way too small to be Deg. Which... scary stuff, all right.

Skrimir is amazed we know Kurth.

Ranulf wasn't actually in the party when we met him in PoR, but he was at this colloquy and the game can bring this up.

Hey, ~100 isn't that old! Especially if you count laguz.

Of course! A peace talk! Why didn't I think of that?

Sanaki would like nothing more than to take Ena's advice, which is why she's frustrated beyond belief that Ena has the audacity to come in with a black dragon and violently insist she drop everything and try it.

There's only so much we can do when the response to peace negotiations is complete stonewalling. Can we really be faulted for giving up on this outcome?

我らとて、幾たびも
それは試みたのじゃ！
しかし、あやつらは……
頑としてそれに応じぬ。
竜鱗族が間に入り、話し合いが
成るというなら、それでも構わん。
じゃが……もう時間はあまりない。

Sanaki includes a bit of a "if the Dragon Scales can do it, fine by me" to the end, which really hammers home the whole "Sanaki doesn't want to do what she's been doing, but Daein isn't giving her a lot of options."

We have a duty to Begnion and everyone else to do something about the Senate.

And also to not cause the end of the world as we know it by dragging this out. This is also a good idea.

It's hilarious that Ena and Elincia tried to use the dragon to stop us without even remembering this plot point. They were only in this for the "don't kill Micaiah" thing.

Time for the prerequisite title drop for the series. "Path of Radiance" and "Radiant Dawn" are too esoteric as titles to be dropped like this, though.

We are... really pressed to get this war over with.

Let's hope that's a thing we can actually do. Three hundredth time's the charm?

I wonder what Kurthnaga can do to help on Micaiah's end.

...So what's Elincia doing here? Ena explained her end, but Elincia seems entirely superfluous to those objectives.

Ike:

エリンシア…
クリミアから預かった兵五千……
ほとんど失ってしまった。
……………すまん。

Elincia:

先ほど、神使様のほうからも
お詫びのお言葉をいただきました。
……兵たちの亡骸は…
司祭たちの手によって
きちんと弔っていただけたとのこと。
私にできるのは……
彼らの魂を…共に故郷へと連れ帰り……
家族のもとへ送り届けることだけ。

Ike:

…………

Elincia:

アイク様……
どうかお顔をあげてください。
…戦なのです……
………私にも覚悟はできています。

Ike:

…エリンシア。

Elincia:

女王ですから。
私は常に強くあらねば……

Ike:

……クリミアは、
いい統治者に恵まれたようだな。

This comes before we ask about why Elincia's here. Remember those 5000 Crimeans that the narrative kind of implied died in 3-12? Ike apologises to Elincia for losing them. Yeah, uh... wow, Micaiah. Wow.

Sanaki sent a proper apology back to Crimea when it happened and the proper burial rites were conducted, and now all Elincia can do is bring their souls back to their families. This is a little bit of a heavy hitter, but Elincia assures Ike she is more than capable of bearing it, which Ike is sure to express his admiration for.

Elincia was coming to Daein for her own purposes.

Remember Bastian? He's still not accounted for.

Right. That's why you're here.

Bastian wasn't exactly AWOL while he was gone. Elincia is acting on a change in circumstances.

That's really the only part Ike cares about, isn't it?

...Of course the Black Knight had disappeared after the Mad King's War. He's supposed to be dead! I wonder who this envoy was and which side of the Apostle/Senate war he's on.

I feel like the more interesting matter is where the Black Knight went off to after the Daein Revolutionary War.

ユリシーズが掴んだ情報では、
漆黒の騎士は、
帝国の視察団が到着する以前に
既に姿を消していたようです。
そしてその行方は依然として知れない。

Yeah, from the sounds of it, this version of the script is talking about the Daein Revolutionary War. The Black Knight had already gotten out of dodge when the Begnion Inspection Team showed up.

Can he really be that good at information if that is his information?

Bastian has abandoned the question of "what's the Black Knight's deal" and gone on to ask a different question. He has intentionally hidden what the question is from Elincia, although the whole "not saying anything else since" has gotten Elincia spooked.

Bastian is probably fine, he's not any danger, but his whole "not being around" is very frustrating.

Plus, it'd help if we knew what he was up to. Make the wait more bearable.

Geoffrey can handle it, right? Maybe Lucia should've stayed behind too...

Ike:

連絡が途絶えてから
どれくらいになるんだ？

Elincia:

…月４つほどです。
それで国の護りはジョフレに任じ、
私はルキノと２人でこうして……

Bastian was delivering 4 reports a month when he was actually reporting in, for a comparison on what "radio silence" (or whatever the pre-radio equivalent is) is to the norm.

This isn't really calling them out for being in danger from anything, but right now, it probably is best to stick together until we've figured out Daein's deal in this whole war effort.

And that's them accounted for.

Ike:

そうか…
しかしあんたたちだけで
下手に動き回るのは危険だ。
こちらでなんとか探ってみるから、
しばらくこの軍に留まっていてくれ。

Elincia:

わかりました…
どうか、お願いいたします。

Ike:

できる限りのことはする。

It's not by much, but I was quite fond of how the whole "it's probably best you stuck with us while this whole mess is going down" message was communicated in JP compared to INT. That last line came out as "do as much as you can", which helps a lot.

No turn bonus for a defend map, but the efforts of our generics have given us something as good as.

Next time: The battle of the hawk and lion.